Editing Amber (section)

== Appearance ==
[[File:Colours of Baltic Amber.jpg|thumb|Unique colors of Baltic amber. Polished stones.]]

Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color "amber", amber can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even [[blue amber]], which is rare and highly sought after.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/amber/amber-gemstone-information-and-education.php|title=Amber: Natural Organic Amber Gemstone & Jewelry Information; GemSelect|website=www.gemselect.com|access-date=2017-08-28|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828193355/https://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/amber/amber-gemstone-information-and-education.php|archive-date=28 August 2017}}</ref>

Yellow amber is a hard fossil resin from evergreen trees, and despite the name it can be translucent, yellow, orange, or brown colored. Known to the Iranians by the Pahlavi compound word kah-ruba (from ''kah'' "straw" plus ''rubay'' "attract, snatch", referring to its electrical properties<ref name="electric" />), which entered Arabic as kahraba' or kahraba (which later became the Arabic word for [[electricity]], كهرباء ''kahrabā{{'}}''), it too was called amber in Europe (Old French and Middle English ambre). Found along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, yellow amber reached the Middle East and western Europe via trade. Its coastal acquisition may have been one reason yellow amber came to be designated by the same term as ambergris. Moreover, like ambergris, the resin could be burned as an incense. The resin's most popular use was, however, for ornamentation—easily cut and polished, it could be transformed into beautiful jewelry. Much of the most highly prized amber is transparent, in contrast to the very common cloudy amber and opaque amber. Opaque amber contains numerous minute bubbles. This kind of amber is known as "bony amber".<ref>"Amber". (1999). In G. W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, Oleg Grabar (eds.) ''Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World'', Harvard University Press, {{ISBN|0674511735}}.</ref>

[[File:Ambre bleu dominicain 21207.jpg|thumb|right|[[Blue amber]] from Dominican Republic]]
Although all Dominican amber is fluorescent, the rarest Dominican amber is blue amber. It turns blue in natural sunlight and any other partially or wholly [[ultraviolet]] light source. In long-wave UV light it has a very strong reflection, almost white. Only about {{convert|100|kg|lbs|abbr=on}} is found per year, which makes it valuable and expensive.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Manuel A. Iturralde-Vennet |year=2001 |title=Geology of the Amber-Bearing Deposits of the Greater Antilles |journal=Caribbean Journal of Science |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=141–167 |url=http://academic.uprm.edu/publications/cjs/Vol37b/37_141-167.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511133007/http://academic.uprm.edu/publications/cjs/Vol37b/37_141-167.pdf |archive-date=11 May 2011 }}</ref>

Sometimes amber retains the form of drops and [[stalactite]]s, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees.{{sfn|Rudler|1911|p=793}} It is thought that, in addition to exuding onto the surface of the tree, amber resin also originally flowed into hollow cavities or cracks within trees, thereby leading to the development of large lumps of amber of irregular form.